Official Luthiers Forum!

A few weeks ago I ordered the Color Tone waterborne spray lacquer from stew mac, I ordered the sealer to go along with it. Does anyone know anything about this sealer? Does it have an amber tone that will enhance the grain? If not I have some universal sander sealer that makes wood look beautiful. I could use that for a sealer if the stuff stew mac sells is not very good. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Colby,

There's been a lot of discussion about the similar KTM-9 recently, I can't remember if the sealer was mentioned but put KTM-9 in the search and about half a dozen threads show up. Not used it myself as I nitro finish or more commonly use french polish.

Golden rule, of course, when using any new product is to go through the entire process on scrap first. The most valuable resource in any workshop is the scrap box under the bench!

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

StewMac's Colortone is Target's USL, so the sealer will most likely also be Target sealer. Head on over to their forum and ask 'em about it, but better yet, try it out on scrap.

I used shellac with very good results as a sealer under the colortone, which warms up the wood a treat. No compatibility issues at all. I also used their waterbased grain filler, although I'm going to try out the Epoxy route next time around.

ColorTone itself is fairly pale, so I added a tiny, tiny amount of ColorTone dye (ie, Transtint. I sometimes wish Stewmac wouldn't re-brand all their finishing products. It's a tad annoying) to the first few coats to 'warm' the colour up a bit, although I don't think I'll do that in future, since I like the natural wood look, and a coat of shellac tints it enough as is.

I agree with Mattia, and I also use shellac no mater what finish I am using. I use Zinssers Sanding Sealer just for conveniounce but any good 2LB cut of wax free shellac will work just fine. I like the very slight amber color the shellac gives.

The ColorTone goes on a little bit milky looking. So build your film slowly. Be sure to stir well and strain well. I strain twice once on the full batch after stiring and again as I load the gun each time. I use Gold medal coffee filters. It is a bit slow but strains well.